Voltera, the Palo Alto, California-based and EQT-backed Charging Infrastructure as a Service provider for battery-electric trucking fleets, has closed another round of financing following August's announcement of a $100 million expansion deal.
Europe's KfW IPEX-Bank, which specializes in financing sustainable technologies, is Voltera's latest financial partner, as the former has agreed to a $50 million investment. The combined $150 million will support Voltera's continued market expansion in the U.S.
“We consider EV charging infrastructure a key component for decarbonizing the mobility sector and are therefore glad to have won Voltera as our first customer in this segment in the US,” says Andreas Ufer, member of the Management Board of KfW IPEX-Bank. “What is more, with this financing we continue our long-standing relationship with our valued clients EQT and EdgeConneX, who we already supported with their data center projects.”
Voltera has become one of the industry's key players in the development, construction, and operation of large capacity EV charging sites that allow customer fleets to deploy EVs at scale. Aside from California, Voltera has charging sites in development in Texas, Arizona, and Florida thought not all are open and operational. The Lynwood, California and Tempe, Arizona sites are currently open.
[Related: Newcomer Voltera takes on charging infrastructure challenges for fleets]
The company also recently launched two new charging sites, located at the Ports of Long Beach and Sacramento, and both are catered specifically to Class 8 trucks operated by drayage fleets. There's now a total of 22 Voltera charging sites nationwide. These sites also serve clients operating EVs in bus transit, delivery and logistics, utility, construction, and rideshare/autonomous passenger car applications. Additional sites are in development, though Voltera has not yet provided details.
Voltera CEO Matt Horton has gone on record as a major proponent of Megawatt charging, also known as the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), an advanced charging connector capable of providing significant amounts of power to EVs. The technology is a must-have for long-haul battery-electric semis, such as the upcoming Tesla Semi, that are equipped with large battery packs. Medium- and heavy-duty trucks will be able to get up to 300 miles of range in less than 30 minutes of charging.
[Related: Voltera CEO: 'Megawatt charging can't come soon enough']
“Voltera shoulders the upfront cost of building large capacity EV charging sites so that customers can deploy EVs at scale easily and efficiently,” added Tyler Sentman, senior director, strategic finance at Voltera. “The financing by KfW IPEX-Bank adds to our overall financial resources and further enables us to expand and serve a growing number of customers.”
